Mostly a blog with photo's I've taken that I think turned out really well. I might also share some of my photo/photo editing tips I've learned over the years. I'm not a professional by ANY means, but I hope I am getting better and taking better photos. :)

Friday, June 08, 2007

How to make 3D Photos

There are many ways to make 3D photos. This way involves creating those blue-red photos that you need the special blue-red glasses for. These instructions are specific to Photoshop (and Windows Photoshop at that, don't know the Mac keyboard equivalents), though I'm sure other programs can work too. You can see some of my 3D photos here.

When looking for 3D photo ops, look for things with lots of depth, stuff close to you, stuff in the middle, and stuff far away. You want to try and focus your camera on something in the middle if possible. Also, try to have as little movement as possible between the two photos. You don't want someone in one photo and not in the other, or people leaning one direction then the next in the 2nd photo. Then again, if you have two camera's hooked together and synced to shoot at the same time, you can take photos with any kind of movement.

Take TWO photos.This is important. You take the first photo, then move to your right about 3-4 inches - NO MORE! - and take the 2nd photo. Your eyes are only that far apart so that's how far apart you want the two photos. Any further and it won't work well.

Download the photos to your computer and open then in Photoshop.

Select the photo you took first. Go to Channels and select the Blue & Green channels by holding down the shift key.

Go to the 2nd photo. Select the entire photo (CTRL-A) and copy it.

Go back to the 1st photo and paste what you just copied.

In Channels, select the RGB channel. Now you see an image with the familiar blue-red look to it. But you're not done yet. You need to line up the two images. You'll notice there are little eye's next to all of the channels. This shows you which channels are being viewed and which are off.

In Channels, select the RED channel. Next to the RGB channel in the box where the eye was, click that. This will display all channels with only the Red selected.

Either choose the move tool or hold down the CTRL key. Now move your mouse to line up the images. What you want is to pick a spot that's somewhere in the middle of the depth and move the image so there is no red or blue showing. This will create your depth when you view the image with the glasses.

And that's it! Save your document and go find some blue-red glasses to view what you just created. It's actually quite fun. I just wish I had two camera's setup to take photos at the same time. Then I could do some really cool photos without worrying about people moving.

About Me

I'm a computer geek (been working with Progress for 20+ yrs) who loves playing my trumpet (have since 4th grade and was in a cool band for 10 years) and good microbrewed beer, not that fizzy yellow stuff Bud calls beer. While also enjoy hiking, playing video/computer games, working in the yard, driving, and many other things, what gives me the most pleasure is my wonderful wife, son and daughter. I'm always amazed I actually got married and I have kids! haha Oh, and if there's any chocolate chip cookies around, you'd better hide them!